BS BFSI Summit: From S Naren to Sailesh Raj Bhan, meet mutual fund CIOs

Mutual Fund CIOs Panel's theme on October 30: Will global slowdown and 2024 general elections weigh on Indian markets?

Business Standard BFSI Summit: The two-day summit will be held in Mumbai’s Jio World Centre, Bandra-Kurla Complex, on October 30 and 31

MUTUAL FUND CIOs

S Naren 

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund
 

Sankaran Naren, currently the executive director and chief investment officer (CIO) at ICICI Prudential MF, is one of the most well-known investment gurus in the country and appreciated for his value-oriented approach. Naren has vast experience across the financial services industry — investment banking, fund management, equity research, and stockbroking operations. Naren has been associated with the ICICI Prudential AMC since October 2004. 

Mahesh Patil  

Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
 

 

Chief investment officer at Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company, Mahesh Patil oversees over Rs 3 trillion worth of assets under management. As head of investments, he directly manages funds such as frontline equity, multicap and focused equity. Patil has more than 30 years of experience and has been with the fund house since 2005.

Rajeev Thakkar 

PPFAS Mutual Fund
 

Rajeev Thakkar is currently the CIO and director of PPFAS Mutual Fund. He has more than two decades of experience in a variety of capital market segments, such as investment banking, corporate finance, securities broking and managing clients’ investments in equities. Thakkar is a strong believer in “value investing” and is heavily influenced by the approach of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. He has a keen eye for undervalued companies.


Rajeev Radhakrishnan

SBI Mutual Fund
 

Rajeev Radhakrishnan joined SBI Funds Management in 2008 as a fixed income fund manager. He is currently CIO (Fixed Income) and directly manages a number of funds. Before SBI MF, Radhakrishnan was co-fund manager (fixed income) with UTI Asset Management for seven years. An engineering graduate, Radhakrishnan holds a masters degree in finance from Mumbai University. He is also a charterholder of the CFA Institute, USA.

Ashish Gupta 

Axis MF
 

Ashish Gupta joined Axis AMC in March 2023 as chief investment officer for Axis Mutual Fund. He has an experience of 25 years across varied industries. His last stint was with Credit Suisse as head of equity research for India. Gupta was one of the earliest to identify the asset quality cycle in Indian banks in 2011 and authored several marquee reports, including the 'House of Debt' series. Additionally, he is an independent director for Small Industries Development Bank of India and an appointed member on Irdai’s consultative committee on investments.

Sailesh Raj Bhan 

Nippon India MF
 

Sailesh Raj Bhan is CIO (Equity) at Nippon India MF. He has over 27 years of experience in Indian equity markets — over 19 years of that at Nippon Life India Asset Management. He was elevated to the position of CIO (Equity) last year. An MBA in finance and CFA by qualification, he has been managing Nippon India's multiple flagship funds — largecap fund, multicap fund & pharma fund — for over 15 years.